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Simple Plastic Free & Toxin Free Cleaning For Your Home

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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welcome everyone I'm Tracy the founder
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of biome I'm talking to you today from
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Brisbane where we are based we're an
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amazing Australian eco-friendly store
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that helps you live with less waste and
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less toxins so today in Brisbane all the
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biome team is at work we've got four
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stores open today and now online centre
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and warehouse where we're busily picking
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packing orders that you've placed online
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with a lot of love and care to get them
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out to you but so and I'm here while
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everybody's busy looking after our
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customers in store to spend some time
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talking to you and try and give you that
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one-on-one experience that you get when
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you do come into our stores and I'm
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going to talk to you today about a
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challenge that I took on in plastic free
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July biome has been operating for 14
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years so I think plastic free July has
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been going for maybe seven years or so
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and we have got ourselves involved with
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supporting it every year but this year I
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really wanted to challenge myself
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personally as well so I took on this
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challenge to post a plastic free way
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every day for 30 days on our social
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media on Instagram and Facebook what I
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loved so much about doing it was all the
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wonderful feedback people were so
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interested in these different ways that
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I had learned over the years to live
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with less plastic and today I'm going to
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share with you three of those ideas
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focused in the area of cleaning your
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home okay so my first idea is for
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plastic free toxin free
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dishwashing this idea got an awful lot
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of love those of us who like to live
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with more respect for the resources of
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our planet
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particularly love these ideas that
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really are very old-fashioned ideas it's
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more in touch with the natural resources
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of the planet or the things that were
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provided to them by nature rather than
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going through synthetic manufacturing
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processes that often involve
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petrochemicals so this is quite a
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traditional method of washing your
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dishes using a good old bar of soap many
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of you are probably aware that it was
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only maybe 60 70 years ago that a bar of
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soap was pretty much used for washing
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everything your clothes your bodies
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around the home well with this one what
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I do is I use this this wooden redecker
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pot rubbing brush and when it's time to
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wash up I I just wet this soap a little
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bit drop a little bit of water on there
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and swirl the brush around to pick up
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some of the soap onto the bristles it's
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not wet at the moment and then that's
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what I just used to scrub the dishes
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sometimes it is really all that you need
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there if you have particularly hard
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water you will find that so does leave
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soap scum buildup in your sink a
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suggestion is to put a little bit of
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bicarb soda into your sink which does
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help to soften the water I've found that
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I do get left with some soap scum around
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the sink and so actually one of the
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other ideas I have for you today
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the soap berry dish liquid it is amazing
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at stripping away that soap scum so I
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use a combination of the two so before I
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go on to the second idea I just want to
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mention if you're keen to see all the 30
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ways that are posted in plastic free
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July it's on Instagram the hashtag 13
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plastic freeways for 30 days but if you
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look in the description down below we
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have a link there for you where you can
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go through to find them now my second
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way is my citrus vinegar cleaner and I
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absolutely love this because I get to
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sit on my kitchen bench this amazing jar
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full of beautiful citrus peels that we
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have used in our house for making well
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you know all the things that you use
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citrus for we make salad dressings put
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them on our avocado grapefruit for
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breakfast lime juice for gin and tonic
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so here's the here's the evidence and
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basically instead of throwing these into
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the compost I put them into this jar
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which is full of white vinegar and I do
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put a little water in as well it doesn't
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have to be just only white vinegar you
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can dilute it and well the smell is
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amazing when you it's it's just a
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beautiful citrus essential oil smell and
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you don't really smell the vinegar
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anymore it takes about a month to fill
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up this jar when the jars full I then
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strain it into a bowl actually I've
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found that because of all the big peels
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that I do two stages the first stage is
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just using a metal sieve and I dump the
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whole jar upside down through a metal
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sieve just to get rid of all the really
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big peels and then with the solution
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that's left
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I strain that through a muslin into my
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into a bottle so this is yes it's a
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plastic bottle but it's a a reused
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bottle from a cleaner I
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had previously from biome and isn't that
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look at that amazing color of course
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no synthetic colors it's all
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natural from the citrus you just use
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this like you would any spray cleaner
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around your home and of course it's free
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from all harmful synthetic chemicals
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that you'll often find in other home
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cleaners my third plastic free way for
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cleaning your home is soap berries a lot
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of us already used soap berries for the
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laundry you might not be aware though
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that you can also make up a soap berry
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tea or a liquid from the soap berries
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and you can use this for all sorts of
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cleaning around your home also we love
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the soap berries from that red house in
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Australia this is how they come packaged
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completely plastic free so this is a
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bunch of soap berries these are straight
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off a tree they're grown in India and
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Nepal where they have been used for
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centuries actually for shampoo and all
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sorts of cleaning uses they pretty much
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are the original shampoo all detergents
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whether they're natural or petrochemical
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based are actually a synthetic
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ingredient detergent is made through a
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chemical process whereas in the case of
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these soap berries they're coated in a
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natural saponin you might be able to see
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there's a slightly waxy surface on them
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and that's the natural soap and when you
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put it with water that soap activates
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and does the job of cleaning the soap
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liquid or so berry tea is very easy
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to make I use 100 grams of soap berries
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into 8 cups or 2 liters of water
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and you put that into a saucepan on the
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hot plate and boil it for 20 minutes and
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then switch it off and allow it to cool
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then you strain that into a jar through
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a muslin obviously to get rid of all the
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soap berry shells and it makes I use
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this particular jar which is now almost
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empty after a month but it basically
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fills this jar for me that quantity and
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and a little bit extra so the soap berry
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tea is of course completely natural and
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it has no preservatives so it won't last
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forever and you do need to keep that in
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the fridge actually to help preserve it
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at the I forgot to mention at the end of
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that process I do stir in a couple of
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teaspoons of citric acid when the liquid
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is still warm you stir it in to dissolve
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it and that will help it to last longer
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as can adding some essential oils so
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that tea so literally just the boiled
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soap berries that's what I use for
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dishwashing liquid so again I've put
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some into an old dishwashing liquid
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bottle now if you don't have these
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yourself because you've never used
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plastic at home perhaps just ask your
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neighbor or one of your work colleagues
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to save one up for you rather than then
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putting it into their recycling give it
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to you to use again so this is my
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dishwashing liquid and it's unbelievable
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it just works so well when you put it
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into the water you don't see a lot of
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or many bubbles at all actually it
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doesn't really even though you can see that it
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it does bubble up here it doesn't hold
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those bubbles for very long but it is
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incredible at stripping grease and I've
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got the shiniest kitchen sink ever
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because it just leaves stainless steel
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in particular so clear you can use it
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for many other things around the home
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some people actually use this also
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straight into their laundry or into
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their washing machine instead of using
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the soap berries whole you can also wash
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your hair with it and wash or wash your
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pets but do be careful to keep the
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liquid out of mouths and eyes because it
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doesn't taste very nice and it can sting
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your eyes as well thanks everyone for
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taking the time today to learn three
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ways that you can live with less plastic
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and I look forward to chatting to you
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again next week

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